A portion of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) California Highway 1 was closed. This is often the case as winter storms wreak havoc on roads on the coast, especially PCH CA 1 as this road hugs the California coast line (which is also why this road is so awesome). My original trip was to ride PCH from Morro Bay (I have ridden this section before) to Salinas, CA. Just north of Ragged Point the road was closed.

My detour route had me ride north on US 101 from Santa Margarita, CA (instead of heading south briefly to pick up California Highway 1 (PCH) in San Luis Obispo. I rode US Highway 101 north to Bradley, CA and then road west on Jolon Rd (Monterey County Road G18) through Fort Hunter Leggitt and onto Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. This road was very narrow but had some great curves and was engulfed in the Los Padres National Forest trees creating tunnels of trees, along with some brief epic views of the surrounding mountains.

The only downside was the considerable amount of oncoming traffic that was diverted from PCH. There were several curves where I came to a near stop hugging the right portion of the road as much as possible as some drivers were less than generous with road sharing. Regardless, this detour actually worked out great as this road is occasionally closed due to Army training.

According to the Wikipedia article linked below, In January 2021, the road was washed out due to the impacts of the Dolan Fire and closed. It is not expected to reopen until at least December 2023

Considering I had ridden the original planned route a few times, this was a great opportunity to ride a new and scenic road!

Wikipedia has more information on Nacimiento-Fergusson Road and the region.